Tax Exemptions of Charities Face New Challenges

[flashl]

RED WING, Minn. — Authorities from the local tax assessor to members of Congress are increasingly challenging the tax-exempt status of nonprofit institutions — ranging from small group homes to wealthy universities — questioning whether they deserve special treatment.

One issue is the growing confusion over what constitutes a charity at a time when nonprofit groups look more like businesses, charging fees and selling products and services to raise money, and state and local governments are under financial pressure because of lower tax revenues.

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In a ruling last December that sent tremors through the not-for-profit world, the Minnesota Supreme Court said a small nonprofit day care agency here had to pay property taxes because, in essence, it gave nothing away.

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The tax-exempt status of charities costs local governments $8 billion to $13 billion annually, according to various rough estimates.

And local assessors are not the only government officials scratching their heads over which groups deserve privileged tax status. Congress has threatened to impose a requirement that wealthy universities make minimum payouts from their endowments and raised questions about whether nonprofit hospitals are really all that different from their for-profit — and tax-paying — competitors.

NY Times

[glowing]

1. Non-profit was set up exclusively for prominent historical, rich families

to keep their money away from the govt. If its non-profit, then they don't give any of it back to the govt. Its a way of corprotizing who gets help and who doesn't. It puts corporations in charge of who they will help and who they won't.. meanwhile the collective body of the govt (which is all The People) do not have enough money to help all the people recieve their rightful liberties.. Hence, education, food, homes, etc. become something within the collective body of the govt that the govt cannot afford to help.

AND because of the original non-profits taking from the collective body, many smaller low budget non-profits spring up to try to plug the damn that keeps springing leaks.

[bobbolink]

2. Error: you can only recommend threads which were started in the past 24 hours

I"m very sorry that I missed seeing this in time... this needs to be getting wider attention. This is very important!

Would you consider posting this on GD? People need to understand the depth of what is happening, and the ramifications.

Thank you for continuing to post such important information!

:yourock: